They came in all shapes and sizes, ages and colours, they arrived in some very old horses floats and some very new trucks. People from across the racing world converged on Geelong racecourse on Tuesday morning for a horse's birthday with a difference.
Champion Canberra gelding Fell Swoop is raring to go ahead of the world's richest race on turf - The Everest.
Four-time premiership winner Hugh Bowman doesn't wear the Godolphin blue often, but don't be surprised if that changes a bit in the new season.
Hugh Bowman revealed his premiership prod came via a swipe from a Melbourne Cup-winning owner as he sealed a fourth premiership - then fell foul of stewards when losing a race on protest which will mean he starts the new season on the sidelines.
While strong gale force winds moved Racing Victoria stewards to post-pone Saturday's Caulfield race meeting, the flagship race on the programme the Bletchingly Stakes and supporting races may yet survive.
It was almost two years between drinks, but Shiraz vindicated Kim Waugh's patience when he broke through in the Winter Challenge at Rosehill.
Caulfield trainer Robert Smerdon is hoping that his late season rush of winners continues into the rich Spring Carnival.
Port Macquarie, Mudgee and Wagga Wagga are all big winners out of the new Country Championships schedule after Racing NSW announced prizemoney for the final will jump to $500,000.
With Jason Coyle having so many female jockeys winning races, it took me back to the era when females were shunned in the saddle.
A Black Opal Stakes day race will be named the Riharna Thomson Bracelet in honour of the late track word rider.
Legendary figure Kevin Newman will have a race named after him on Bathurst's Breeders Challenge regional finals day as the industry comes to terms with the sudden death of a harness racing history maker.
Gary Moore plans to take a stranglehold on the Winter Challenge in the early stages and never relinquish it with the free-striding Classic Uniform, which is eyeing a second stakes win at Rosehill.
David Payne will campaign for more late season two-year-old races over further ground as he plots the downfall of the heavily-backed D'Argento in the final city meeting on the racing calendar at Rosehill.
The former Hawk star made his name in Melbourne tackling the likes of John Nicholls, but these days his focus is on horse welfare.
All eyes are on the one-time world champion.
Trainer Nick Olive is hoping for a final-day draw with Keith Dryden in the ACT Trainers' Premiership
Jockey Craig Newitt has been aboard Lankan Rupee enough times during the one-time world champion sprinter's career to know that Saturday's $150,000 Bletchingly Stakes is an achievable goal.
Brenton Avdulla won't raise the white flag yet, but the long-time premiership leader has conceded it's "highly unlikely" he can halt Hugh Bowman's irresistible charge to a fourth Sydney jockeys' title on the final day of the season.
If you'd told Jason Coyle at the start of the year his own premiership position would be higher than that of his beloved Bulldogs, he might have laughed. Then maybe cried. But it's a sign of his stable on the rise and a football team in freefall how things have panned out in the past six months.
Inglis' Riverside Stables at Warwick Farm – the new venue for Australia's biggest bloodstock auction – command a breathtaking location and promise to become one of the world's great thoroughbred amphitheatres.
Chris Waller's cavalry will help decide which way the enthralling Sydney jockeys title will go, but it will also be the final city meeting of the season in which he might unveil one of his season's brightest prospects.
World champion race mare, Winx, is set to make her Flemington debut in this year's rich $2 million Emirates Stakes on the fourth day of the Melbourne Cup carnival in an appearance that could attract a crowd larger than Australia's greatest race.
Chris Waller has given Hugh Bowman the green light to chase rides away from Australia's leading group 1 stable to further his jockey's premiership cause.
Veteran racing journalist and trainer Neville Prendergast has died aged 88.
Godolphin Australia boss Henry Plumptre has quit as Sheikh Mohammed's top man Down Under just over a week before the dramatic strangles inquiry is due to return before stewards.
Winx preserved her bizarre record of never winning a barrier trial, but Australia's champion racehorse is back bigger and better than ever as she bids to win a record-equalling third Cox Plate.
Champion jockey Hugh Bowman's week will begin with superstar Winx on Monday before progressing to the final two meetings of a premiership battle and end on a different track at Kokoda.
The emergence of apprentice Rachel King during the past two months on Sydney Saturdays as vindicated her choice of jobs at Tulloch Lodge and the eventual judgement of Gai Waterhouse.
Victorian racing TV channel in multimillion-dollar play for South Australian rights.
Brenton Avdulla will hope Argent D'or's victory over the Hugh Bowman-ridden favourite Spending To Win by a nose can be replicated in the Sydney jockeys' premiership in the final week of their title stoush.
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